BIKER VERDICT CAUSES UPROAR

Spouse, Friends Shout As 'Teddy Bear' Sentenced

A Hells Angels veteran was lead away in handcuffs to start a nine-year
sentence for drug trafficking and aiding a criminal organization
yesterday while his common-law wife and friends kicked up a ruckus in
the courtroom.

Brian Jeffrey, 50, a member of the Simcoe County Hells Angels chapter,
was imprisoned for nine years -- less six months for pre-trial
custody. He was given five years for trafficking four kilos of cocaine
and 3.5 years for doing so for the benefit of a criminal organization
- -- the bike gang.

The conviction for criminal organization means Jeffrey will likely
spend 5.5 years before being eligible for parole, Crown attorney Tom
Andreopoulos said.

Justice John McMahon said Jeffrey dealt "deadly drugs" that wreaked
havoc on both the users and their families. The barrel-chested biker
had boasted of the 90% purity of the four kilos of cocaine he peddled.

These facts contradicted the sympathetic portrayal of Jeffrey by his
family and friends as a "teddy bear" father figure who helped abused
children, McMahon said.

As Jeffrey was escorted out in handcuffs and prevented from hugging
his common-law wife, Antoinette Diruscio cried out in court,
protesting, "How can you send him away for eight and a half years and
not let me touch him?" Diruscio clawed the benches as Jeffrey's
friends shouted, "You're all liars!"

Then, Jeffrey's distraught spouse stomped out of the courtroom,
kicking the rows as she left.

Jeffrey pleaded guilty last September to the drug trafficking charge
but pleaded not guilty to the criminal organization charge. He was
later convicted as McMahon found that the drug sales proceeds were for
the benefit of a criminal organization.

Jeffrey was one of the last men to be tried in a massive operation
involving 500 officers from 11 forces in 2006. Project Tandem targeted
chapters in Oshawa, Windsor and Niagara.

Ironically, the key police agent in Project Tandem, Steven Gault, a
former Hells Angels executive member, joined the club by collecting
drug debts for Jeffrey in Peterborough in 2003.

The total street value of the drugs seized was about $3 million,
including two kilos of pure crystal meth, 10 kilos of cocaine, 50,000
Ecstasy pills, eight kilos of marijuana and one kilo of hashish.

Twenty-four people were charged, 15 of them members of Hells Angels.
The most serious offenders were sentenced to the equivalent of five-
to eight-year prison terms.